Preservationists Attempt to Use Landmark Status
To Force Owner To Maintain, Not Destroy, Building
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
BAY RIDGE — The Bay Ridge United Methodist Church is in contract with a developer, with a closing imminent, but that’s not stopping local preservationists from trying to save the crumbling 108-year-old structure from the wrecking ball.
They are now attempting to have the church fast-tracked through the city landmarking process so the developer, who plans to build condos in its place, would be barred from ever altering its distinct, green façade.
Hundreds of letters and signatures have been sent to Robert Tierney, chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, requesting “that the church be calendared for a hearing as quickly as possible,” said Jeanette Correa, the co-chair of a committee to save the church formed last month. She said the Committee to Save the Bay Ridge United Methodist Church already has 60 members.
But the so-called “Green Church” certainly wasn’t listed at $12 million so the buyer could be saddled with high maintenance fees and an estimated $3 million to repair the building’s deteriorating clock tower, which is made of a rare serpentine stone. The property was listed as a development parcel, “a prime corner on highly visible Fourth Avenue,” with 85,500 buildable square feet.
“A lot of people worked hard to get the zoning changed [with height limits in certain areas] so the old buildings won’t get torn down for condos to go up,” said Correa. “If all the old buildings keep getting torn down, we’re not going to have any distinct buildings here in Bay Ridge.”
United Methodist Pastor Robert Emerick doesn’t seem to understand what all the fuss is about. He said the church’s mission is to use its money to help people who are suffering around the world, not to maintain buildings.
He criticized Councilman Vincent Gentile, D-Bay Ridge, for using the government to interfere with the church’s affairs; local preservationists for caring more about buildings than people in need; and the media for using the issue to sell papers. Besides that, he had no comment, but did confirm that the church is in contract with a developer.
Gentile publicly stepped back from the issue after being lambasted by the church’s members at two public meetings last month, but he has been working on saving it from behind the scenes.
“We keep bothering [Landmarks] about it, we keep prodding them, prodding [City] Council, prodding the mayor, prodding other people,” said Eric Kuo, spokesman for Gentile. “We haven’t heard anything positive or negative, but usually not hearing anything is not a good sign.”
Landmarks spokeswoman Lisi de Bourbon said, “We haven’t reviewed the [request] yet, but we’re going to. I don’t know exactly when.” She said the commission was unaware that the building was in contract with a developer.
One of the most recent instances in which the commission designated a building as a landmark in the midst of a sale was last December. A developer purchased the George B. and Susan Elkins House in Crown Heights with the intention of demolishing it, despite knowing that the neighborhood was on the commission’s schedule for a hearing on designating it as a landmark district.
“But it was only because the [Elkins] building was already calendared” as part of the historic district, said de Bourbon.
Expect to hear more about the crypt buried in the church’s front yard, which would have to be moved so the condos could be built. The bodies of 211 former parishioners are buried there, some of them causalities of the Civil War and the Spanish-American War, and some from prominent families.
“We’re very against it. Once somebody is laid to rest, that is eternal, and that’s across the board with Methodists,” said Alice Carter-Mead, a former parishioner. “It’s like, you move a dead person, they’ve been uprooted from this life, how do you uproot them from their death?”
The bodies have been moved three times prior to 1901 as the church changed location, said Emerick. “It’s not like we’re going to throw them away. They will be buried in a cemetery.”
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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